RCI-Chakka-Kumbil Appam/ Steamed Jack fruit dumplings.

Chakka Appam or Kumbil Appam is an authentic dish belonging to 'God’s own country'.
The sweet bits of Jack fruit bulbs incorporated with rice flour and jaggery, the wet dough wrapped and rolled carefully in bay leaves, pinned up using the tender midribs of coconut palm leaves, steam cooked to perfection, is indeed a delicacy, worth trying!.

This is my first entry to RCI-Kerala hosted by Jyothsna.

To Yield about 20,
You Need:

Ripe Jack fruit Bulbs (preferably Varikka chakka) ,chopped fine-1/4 kg or 2 cups
Molasses/jaggery(preferably karutha sarkara of Kerala),scraped or broken to lumps-1/4 kg
Grated coconut, ground coarse-1 cup
Rice flour-2 cups

Cumin seeds/jeerakam, crushed coarse-1/4 tsp
Salt-A pinch
Cardamom, powdered-1/4 tsp

Method:

1. Melt Jaggery in ½ cup water, filter impurities and boil till thickens to attain the consistency of honey, in a broad and thick bottomed pan.

2. Add the chopped fruit pieces and grated coconut into the syrup and mix for a couple of minutes to blend well.Turn off the flame.Cool down to bearable warmth.Add rice four, 1/2 cup at a time, cumin seeds, salt and knead well to form a soft batter.Add water if necessary or the dough is too thick.This should neither be too thick nor too loose so as to wrap in the bay leaves.

3.Drop a tbsp of batter or more according to the size of the leaf, at one end, centred.

4. Wrap and roll the leaf to a cone shape so as to cover the batter. Secure the main stem of the leaf by tucking into the batter as in the picture.


Tiny pieces of the mid rib of a tender coconut leaf(eerkkili) is also used as a pin to secure the edge of the leaf to the cone body. Steam cook for 20 minutes.If you pressure cook, avoid inserting the ‘weight-knob’ on the lid. Serve appams when cooled down to room temperature.

Note-Jack fruit pulp is commonly used to make these, but I used chopped bits.Traditionally the ripe bulbs of Koozha chakka,the pulpy variety are scrubbed on the rough surface of an inverted hand woven basket, a kotta, to collect the pulp!..one of the methods people used to follow, those olden days before the birth of electrical blenders, juicers or mixers!!...So the pulp can
be extracted by the modern methods and can be proceeded..


Kumbil appam can also be prepared using Chakka varatti (the picture in the right) or the Jack fruit preserve, with minimised efforts.
One has to add rice powder, coconut gratings etc to the varatti, directly and proceed.The featured ones here were made like wise.
I followed rough line measurements for the same. A cup of chakka varatti was mixed with 1/2 cup each of rice flour and finely grated coconut, 1/4 tsp coarsely crushed cumin seeds, a pinch of salt and 'no' cardamom..(I love the natural cinnamony flavour contributed by the vazhana ila)were all blended with just enough warm water to make a soft dough and coned with the leaves after checking the sweetness. Steam cooked for 20 minutes.

The Fresh Green Bay leaf used for wrapping imparts that distinct, heavenly ‘Cinnamony’ flavour to the Appam.Yes, the leaf falls under the category of 'Bay leaves'.I am not sure whether these are the regular Tej patta. Commonly known as Kumbil ila ,Vazhana ila or Edana ila, in the state, I tried my best to search the sources in the net.The image here shows the closest properties of the leaves, but dried.

The quest continues..where did the delicacy originate?..Central Kerala?.. Palai to be precise?..Requesting my blogger friends to share any more news about the same.


Updated- Jan 17 '08

Aparna, one of my enthusiastic blogger friends, had been so sweet to mail me the following-

This is the info. I've been able to gather.

1. Kumbil appam is also called Vaavu Appam by some communities in Kerala (seems to be mostly towards the south of Kerala and in Trivandrum) as they make it when performing "bali"/ remembering those who have passed on, during Karkataka Vaavu. Other communities prepare the Ela Ada for this ritual and prepare the Kumbil Appam as a sweet during the Jackfruit season.

2. The "edana" leaf that is used to make them is not the same as the cinnamon/ bay leaf. The edana leaf does have a somewhat cinnamon flavour and looks a little like the cinnamon leaf but is longer in shape.

Hugs to you !! Aparna :)

Rajani of vegetarian in ME has come up with her awesome step by step illustrations of making the same. A must see!!..

Great work Rajani! :)

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Chakka Varatti/Jack fruit Preserve.

The game is over..and lemme shake hands with bee (who came up with the first right guess),tbc, remya and sumitha who had also guessed right! It was really nice to scroll down the varied guesses ... most of them associating their imaginations with their own regional, traditional sweets..that was the sweetest of you too...:)

Soon after finishing editing this post I was unusually prompted to search the versions of the same in blogosphere.I did find a few fine recipes of Chakka varatti, but very few in all, which made me realise that this is certainly a ‘not-so-common delicacy’, of Kerala Of course, which has yet to be tried by the bloggers..

Being aware of the “hard” reality that this is not “easy” as it sounds…in other words,”beware! my dear friends this is not as easy to prepare as you read through!:)..”..I had less confidence when it came to ‘trying-for-the-first-time’ and kept postponing until I got the right ally; my Mom!!...

Together we started chopping the ripe fruit bulbs, which was not an easy job..(she was particular ‘not’ to churn up in a mixer and wanted the tiny bits undissolved in the end product!), and proceeded to the other ingredients.’Coconut’ was avoided as we prefer without them.The mixing part was done alternatively by her and me in a 7 lt Prestige pressure cooker body.Supposed to be done in Uruli but we avoided that too as it might bring the hazard of spurting all over while boiling the fruit mixture.
After about 1 ½ hours of exertion, we came up with a kilogram of the real traditional Chakka Varatti!!!...it tasted great and was worth the effort!..

So here is the recipe…

Ingredients:

Yielded 1kg, Time to prepare 1 1/2 hrs :D..

Ripe jack fruit bulbs-chopped-6 cups(we used Varikka chakka which is preferred.Refrain from Koozha chakka as it tends to be more fibrous).
Jaggery-crushed to smaller lumps-3 cups
(If weighed, jaggery should not be less than half the weight of the fruit)
Ghee-1 ½ cups
Cardamom powder-a tsp or to flavour as you please

Method:

Pressure cook the jack fruit pieces in 3/4 cup of water until 4-5 whistles.In the mean time, melt jaggery in ½ cup of water till it becomes slightly thick.Filter impurities and add on to cooked fruit.Bring to a boil,this mixture and keeping the flame medium, keep on stirring….on and on.. adding half the quantity of ghee while stirring ..on and on..:)..continuously …( go for a long handled ladle with a flat end so that to have your hands safe from the hot splutters when the pulp boils and bubbles over)…stirring on and on...:).almost .for an hour and a half..:)..till it spreads a wonderful aroma and rolls out to a dark soft ball leaving the edges of the vessel.Add the remaining ghee and mix well along with the cardamom powder.

The darker the hue,the richer the taste and longer the shelf life of the preserve.

The three pictures here represent the stages of preparation in half an hour intervals.

Chakka pradhaman(the diluted payasam with the addition of coconut milk) , Chakka ilayappam(steamed dumplings with the fruity filling, wrapped in banana leaves)and Kumbil appam(steamed in Bay leaves as cones....to be posted soon) are mostly prepared using the above Chakka varatti/chakka vilayichathu as the base ingredient.

May-2007
Jai & Bee of Jugalbandi announced JFI-Jack fruit.Unfortunately I could not be a part of their fabulous round up as I had been away, holidaying.

I dedicate this post to you Bee..

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